We got the kids' psych evals back this past Monday. I wasn't supposed to see them as the person who did them wanted to discuss them with me in person before I saw them (I'm meeting with her tomorrow am) but my nice sw from our local office made copies and brought them to me. Nothing too big of a surprise in them.
Emilee - RAD/ODD/PTSD/ADHD/Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder. Rule out Bi-polar, Rule out Sexual Abuse and a few other things. We knew of RAD and we suspect Sexual Abuse to some degree. The rest although we didn't know about it is not a surprise. The have her at the developmental age of 4 1/2. (She will be seven in 2 weeks). Academically - she is VERY BRIGHT. She has no problems with her school work or with learning to read etc. Socially/emotionally - 4 1/2 does make sense to us. They also want a medication consultation to be done.
JP - ADHD/Recept-Express lang disorder/Reactive Attachment Disruption and a few others that I can't remember. He is developmentally at the age of 3yrs 3 months. This is no surprise to us. It also states in his that he is having issues in school with becoming frustrated at the work and pace they are moving at. He has been bringing home books that he is supposed to be able to read based on the picture above the word and he hasn't been able to do a single word. They also are wanting a medication consultation done with Jacob.
Here's my thoughts....(inset email sent to SW yesterday)
Mainly our concerns are with JP and school. We’ve had thoughts all along that he was more like a 3 yr old than a 5 yr old and like I've said, we fully expect to repeat Kindergarten again next year as I don’t think he is truly ready for it. We have been afraid that he may be getting too frustrated with the work/speed at which they are moving in Kindergarten and that we are maybe doing damage in the aspect of frustrating him more that he doesn’t know/understand what is being asked of him than we are doing good having him in normal Kindergarten? Now that we have it in black and white that he is functioning at a 3yr old level, are we asking too much of him? We are told he is getting speech and yet we are now 6 weeks into school and no speech has been started for him.
I guess a thought we had is would it be possible to get him into _________'s (town that I work in) Developmental Kindergarten class that moves at a much slower speed than normal kindergarten. Would this be a better fit for his needs/abilities? We had a foster son in this class in 2005/2006 so I know a little about how the class works. They teach the same things as normal kindergarten, just much slower and the kids are not required to KNOW everything..it’s just mainly to introduce them to everything. Then they have a Jr. 1st grade that they go to next year. Then 1st grade the year after. What our thoughts are is that if it would be possible to get him into this class for the rest of this year, then have him repeat Kindergarten next year in ___________(school district we live in) and maybe things would go better for him????
Another thought is what about some sort of pre-school or headstart again vs Kindergarten. This would be our thoughts only if Developmental Kindergarten is not an option.
So now I put it to you out there. What do you think? Do you think we may do even more harm in moving him? He never talks about friends in his class or anything and even when I ask him to name his friend in school, he can't. I'm not too worried about him moving schools from a making friends standpoint, but how do we explain it to him in a way he MIGHT understand??? How do we tell Emilee? This is not going to be easy.
I have actually already talked with the school district here in town where i work and they have room for him and he can start next monday. They said he could start tomorrow but I think that is too much for him to handle. Developmental K is also going to be 5 days a week vs his M-W, every other Friday schedule he is on now. I think this schedule of every day will be better for him. He gets SOOOOO confused as to whether or not he is supposed to go to school today or does he go to daycare?
So tell me your thoughts....I know this is a decision we have to make but HELP ME!!!!
2 comments:
I think the development kindergarten sounds like a good middle of the road option (like I really know since I don't have kids), but structure & routine may be a good thing. Ya know? Atleast that is what my friends tell me.
Thanks for the shout out. I know you read my lame blog.
I also think that the development kindergarten sounds like a really good option.
From our experience with Destiny, and her going to a special education first grade class combined with "regular" classes, we have seen that it's best to have her in a class that can really apply/adapt to her needs...and a teacher and classmates that are understanding of her learning delays.
I think the best thing we can do with these "special needs" children is to get them into classes that are especially for them, and that will move at a pace they can handle...and that will encourage a love for learning, instead of dread. I know that Destiny gets frustrated easily, and I know that being in just "regular" classes all day would just be overwhelming and even more frustrating for her.
Anyway, that's my insight on this. Good luck with everything. Keep us posted on how things go.
(((HUGS)))
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